Shell LiveWire (“Grand Ideas Awards”):

Shell (the global BigOil company) operates a fantastic website resource and organisation called Shell LiveWire. The main attraction is a monthly pitching competition where you can win a cash prize for entering a video pitch of your business idea. Previously (through 2014 and before), this was known as the “Grand Ideas Award” and each month 4 winners would be voted for, selected and then awarded a £1,000 prize. Having checked recently, it looks as though Shell have re-vamped the format and replaced it with what they’re now calling “Smarter Future Awards”. The big change appears to be twofold – now your submission has to qualify by being related to transport, food, energy, natural resources, urban environments or sustainability, but also there is now only one monthly winner; but for a cash prize of £5,000! Nice! In previous years the monthly winners throughout the year would also qualify for the annual “Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award”, which carries a prize of £10,000. Most recent winners have been Daniel Murray (Grabble), and Jermaine Hogan (RevisionApp).

O2 Smarta100:

This award is a collaboration between O2 (the UK telecoms arm of Telefonica), and Smarta, the business support and advice network for startups. The Smarta100 competition runs annually and looks to celebrate and reward the most resourceful, inspiring and disruptive SME businesses in the UK right now. There’s a £1,000 prize for each of the categories, and a grand prize of £10,000 for the ‘business of the year’.

Great British Entrepreneur Awards:

The Great British Entrepreneurs Awards are sponsored and supported by a huge raft of UK businesses and organisations, and award a number of prizes across a range of categories each year. I don’t know a huge amount about these awards or the application criteria, but more information and a great video showing the highlights of the 2014 awards can be found here: http://greatbritishentrepreneurawards.com/